1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a folding ball trolley, especially to a folding ball trolley that has reduced rods and thus has lowered manufacturing cost and is easy to be assembled.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
A ball trolley is common in sports arenas, such as a gymnasium, for containing multiple and various kinds of balls, such as volleyballs, basketballs and so on. A user can conveniently move the ball trolley with the balls placed in it, or the user can take out the balls continually from the ball trolley for use.
A conventional trolley ball is disclosed in Taiwan utility model patent No. M459001, which is also disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/888,453. Both are incorporated herein as reference. With reference to FIG. 12, the conventional trolley ball comprises a frame 91, a bag 92 and two springs. The frame 91 has four stand rods 911, four top seats 912, four sliding seats 913, four connecting rod assemblies 914, and four mounting rods 915. The top seats 912 are respectively mounted on top ends of the stand rods 911. The sliding seats 913 are respectively mounted movably on the stand rods 911. Each connecting rod assembly 914 is mounted between two adjacent stand rods 911, and has two connecting rods 9141. The mounting rods 915 respectively and pivotally connect to the top seats 912. The bag 92 is mounted on the mounting rods 915. The springs are mounted on two diagonally opposite corners of the frame 91, and two ends of each spring respectively connect to the top seat 912 and the sliding seat 913 on the same stand rod 911. Thus, the spring pushes up the sliding seat 913 into position, and the moving of the sliding seat 913 rotates the connecting rod assemblies 914, thereby extending the distance between two adjacent stand rods 911.
However, the conventional ball trolley has the following shortcomings.
First, the conventional ball trolley has too many components. The four stand rods 911, the four connecting rod assemblies 914, and the four mounting rods 915 comprise sixteen rods in total, which increases the manufacturing cost and time spent in assembling.
Second, the conventional ball trolley needs springs to maintain the bracing condition of the ball trolley. However, using springs also increases the manufacturing cost and time spent in assembling, and worse still, a user has to resist the resilient force of the springs when folding the ball trolley, which is very inconvenient.
Third, the sliding seats 913 slide relative to the stand rods 911 when the ball trolley is folded or expanded. But the sliding of the sliding seats 913 may be unsmooth due to various reasons, such as low manufacturing precision, rusting after long time of using, or angle deviation after impact. The unsmooth sliding causes the ball trolley hard to be folded or expanded.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a folding ball trolley to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.